Create a Photorealistic Letter Envelope in Photoshop

Photoshop is program of choice for web designers around the globe. Its popularity is well-deserved; it has amazing potential for creating lifelike imagery in minutes. Nowadays, designers are focusing on creating highly-detailed realistic items. Photoshop has a lot to offer in this realm — all you need to do is keep practicing and exploring it to attain outstanding results.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a photorealistic letter envelope in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn to create both the front and backsides of the envelope. We are going to use different shape tools, filters, and various blending options to achieve the final result. So, let’s get started!

Step 1: Build Your Canvas

Create a new document in Photoshop with an 800px width and a 1000px height.

Step 2: Design the Outline

First, we’ll make the front side of the envelope. Set #eaedeb as your foreground color and select the rounded rectangle tool with a 10px radius to draw a rectangle of the size that you want your envelope to be.

Step 3: Apply Layer Styles

Double-click on this layer to open the layer style window and apply the following settings.

Step 4: Duplicate Your Layer

To enhance the shadow effect, duplicate the rectangle; remove its effects by simply dragging them to the “Delete Layer” icon present at the bottom of the layers panel. Change its color to pure black and place it below the original rectangle layer. Now, drag this rectangle to the right and downward a bit.

Go to “Filter” > “Blur” > “Gaussian Blur.” Use a value of 4px here.

Now reduce the opacity of this layer to 40%.

Step 5: Build Envelope Borders

Next, we’ll form the envelope borders. I’ve made the desired pattern to save your time; you can download it from the resources. Open the file in Photoshop, select a thin stripe using rectangular marquee tool, and press Ctrl+ “C” to copy the selection.

Now press Ctrl + “V” to paste it onto a new layer at the top of the rest of the layers in your document.

To confine this stripe to the envelope, click on the stripe layer, and then press Ctrl + <click on the thumbnail of the rectangle layer> to make a selection around it. Now press the “Add layer mask” icon, which is present at the bottom of the layers panel.

Step 6: Stripes All Around

Duplicate the top border thrice, arrange it around the rest of the borders, and add layer masks to them. Use the free transform tool (Ctrl + “T”) to rotate the border 90 degrees.

Step 7: Make Address Lines

Next, we’ll make dotted lines at the bottom-left corner of the envelope. Set #a0a4a1 as your foreground color and select the hard round brush. Use the following settings in the brush panel and simply draw a line using the brush tool while holding the “Shift” key. Draw this line on a new layer and duplicate it twice to get three lines in total. Arrange them as shown below.

Step 8: The Stamp

To form a stamp base, draw a rectangle in pure white color and select the hard round brush with the same settings used in step 7. Apply this brush on a new layer around the borders in a way that inner halves of the circles are inside the rectangle. Once you are satisfied with the shape, merge these layers.

Use the following settings to add shadow to the stamp.

Step 9: Stamp Details

I’ve used the image from my cupcake tutorial. You can make a dotted frame using the same technique if you want. Add some text to finish the stamp. I’ve used “Bookman Old Style” as the font here.

Step 10: Add Ink Stamps

Load the stamp brushes in Photoshop and apply few of them on separate new layers in pure black. Arrange them as you like.

Step 11: Air Mail Stamp

Draw a small rectangle using the rounded rectangle tool with a 10px radius. Use color #2087b0 here.

Use the following values to add a slight shadow.

Step 12

Add some text inside the rectangle. I used the same font in white shade. You can add a simple plane vector to enhance the overall look. I’ve made the plane using the pen tool (Tool mode: Shape).

The front of the envelop is done, all with simple, easy techniques used to achieve a great result. Now, we’ll move ahead to create the backside.

Step 13: Start the Back

Collect all the layers forming the envelope’s front in a group. Duplicate this group, and delete all the layers in this group except the main rectangle, its shadow, and the striped borders.

Now, draw the shape as below using the pen tool (Tool mode: Shape) in color #eaedeb. I’ve drawn half of it, duplicated it, and flipped it horizontally to get the identical sides. To flip horizontally, go to “Edit” > “Transform” > “Flip Horizontal.”

Step 14: Add Layer Styles

Apply the following layer style settings on this new envelope flap.

Step 15: Form a Flap Shadow

Next, to form its shadow, duplicate this new shape layer, turn it black, and place it below the original layer. Now, go to “Edit” > “Transform” > “Warp.” Use this tool to create the shadow shape shown below.

Reduce the opacity of the shadow layer to 35%.

Step 16: Finish Your Envelope

Duplicate the shape layer, which we’ve created in step 13. Flip it vertically and arrange it as shown below.

Step 17: Add Shadow

Make its shadow in the same way as explained in step 15. Use the warp tool as shown below.

Once you are done, reduce the opacity of this layer to 20%.

Step 18: Bring Back the Stripes

Now drag the top and bottom border layers at top of rest of the layers.

Step 19: Add a Stamp

Apply an appropriate stamp brush on a new layer.

I want to break the stamp in two parts, as you can see paper is lifted a bit at that area. To achieve this, duplicate the stamp layer. Select a portion of the stamp using the lasso tool and go to “Edit” > “Clear.”

Now, click on the duplicated stamp layer and add a layer mask to confine it to the lower triangular shape.

Step 20: Remove Unwanted Shadow

Create a new layer at the top and apply a soft round brush tool with 20% opacity in pure white color as shown below.

That’s it guys. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and learned something useful. I’ll be waiting for your feedback.

Anum is Web and Graphic designer. Addicted to Photoshop and crazy for pixel perfection. She is also an active blogger, sharing her passions, skills and creative details on her blog Websoulz. She loves to connect with the community, sharing the latest design gossips and rolling her eyes on boring trends.